AIS Class B Transceiver Install

One of the systems we wished we had when we brought the boat down the coast from Seattle to Portland was an AIS transceiver.  AIS is an identification system that lets you identify and locate other vessels that are equipped with AIS. The International Maritime Organization's (IMO) requires ships of 300 or more tons and passenger ships to have AIS. We would like to see and be seen by large ships.  AIS receivers let you see other ships, whereas AIS transceivers let you see other ships as well as transmit your position, speed and heading to other ships, adding another layer of safety.

AIS uses Very High Frequency (VHF) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to gather and transmit AIS information to either a dedicated display, or it can overlay AIS information onto an existing chart plotter or navigation software such as MaxSea or Rose Point. Our Furuno chart plotter and radar are older and cannot decipher AIS, so we thought about upgrading our chartplotter. Unfortunately a new chart plotter and repeater at the nav station would end up costing more than $10k, so we decided to leave the Furuno chart plotter and repeater in place.  We can still use the Furuno for our radar display and GPS data display.  We will now use computer charts and overlay AIS information onto the laptop chart. 

 After some research, I chose the Comnav MarinerX2 Class B AIS transceiver, partly because it doesn't come with a VHF antenna. I didn't need a VHF antenna because I chose to use a splitter and use the same antenna for AIS and VHF, which is allowed. Plus it saves me a trip up the mast, which is not my most favorite thing to do. The splitter has a PL-259 plug for the antenna, and two plugs, one for the AIS and one for the VHF radio. That way, the VHF and the AIS share the VHF antenna. The splitter also has a FM connection, but I won't be using it since my radio antenna seems to be connected to something already.

 It was a bit of a mental exercise trying to figure out where to mount the AIS and the splitter since the nav station area is at a premium for real estate. I found a little spot for the splitter near the VHF radio, since the antenna cable already routes to that area and it's a short run from the splitter back to the VHF radio. The AIS is a little bigger than the splitter, but luckily, it has a low profile, so I mounted it under the nav station desk. It's not in the way at all, and we can easily reach under the desk and press the "silent" button to stop AIS transmission in pirate alley – if in the area.

 Instead of mounting the GPS antenna permanently and running the cable through a through-hull cable connection, I ran the RG-58 cable through a ventilation clamshell. This allowed me to test if the GPS placement will work in the current location, without having to drill a hole.  I’m going to be running some other cables through the deck (future project) and I may wait to see if I can bundle it and some other cables together in the same through-hull.

 The AIS has a NEMA0183 interface and a serial connection. I used the serial connection with a serial-to-USB cable and connected up to an old USB hub under the nav station. I won’t have to run individual USB cables to the laptop, I can just connect devices ( PACTOR modem) up to the hub and then we only have one cable from the hub to the laptop.

 For the power connections to the AIS and splitter, I used the chartplotter and radar circuit breaker. This way, we only have to flip one switch and we’ll have AIS, radar, and chartplotter all powered on. This is nice, especially since we are running out of space on our nav station for additional power switches. We currently have one slot left and we are saving it for the hot tub : )

 After the AIS was all wired up and powered on, we went to http://www.marinetraffic.com and looked for Bliss in the marina, but even after a while, we didn’t see anything. I thought there may be a delay on how long the data is displayed on the web site, so I called up the local Coast Guard station and asked if I was visible on AIS. The watchstander asked for vessel name and MMSI number and told me that I was not visible on AIS. The AIS interface showed GPS satellites in range and the AIS unit up and running, so I thought I maybe didn't connect the VHF correctly. I decided to swap the PL-259 cables one for the other. The one for the VHF to the AIS and vice versa. I powered everything back up and within minutes we could see Bliss on marinetraffic.com. The Coast Guard watchstander had offered to help if we needed another AIS check.  I called up the station again and this time he could see Bliss on AIS.

Simrad HLD2000 Autopilot

We started having problems with our Simrad Autopilot several months ago.  We were receiving a Rudder Response Feedback Failure on the Simrad AP22 display.  At first it would only happen while sailing in strong winds, but then it started happening in light winds and even when we were motoring.  We did some research online and also checked out the manual, which suggested looking at all of the wiring, connections and junction box.  

During our investigation, we discovered that the autopilot pump on the hydraulic linear drive was extremely corroded on the bottom.  We also found steering fluid on the hydraulic arm and around the autopilot area. We disconnected the hydraulic linear drive (Simrad HLD2000 MK2) from the brains (Simrad J300x), and brought the unit out into the cockpit for a closer look.  With the amount of corrosion, we decided to have the unit tested at our local Simrad repair shop. They said the unit tested good "to factory specs" after refilling with steering fluid. They suggested that we clean up the unit and reinstall it.

We took the pump off the unit to clean the rust and then repainted it. We put the unit back together again and then put it back in to the boat. This required some major "boat yoga" with Geralyn helping through the quarter berth and me on top of the batteries. We got the unit connected and bolted down and then started testing at the dock.  The test failed – the linear drive was not working.  How frustrating!  It was such a difficult job to remove the unit and put it back in.  We noticed that when we powered up the autopilot, the clutch would engage and take over the wheel by locking it.  So we assumed the clutch was working, but the pump wasn't.

We decided to disconnect the pump leads from the J300X and do some testing with a volt meter.  When we connected the volt meter to the J300X leads and pressed the buttons on the autopilot to turn to port or starboard, we got a spike in volts. This told us that the J300X was sending voltage to the pump, but the pump wasn't activating. Feeling pretty energized from the troubleshooting, we took the whole unit out again and disconnected the pump. We connected a couple of leads to the starter battery and tried to get the pump to energize straight from the starter battery. Nothing!  We opened up the pump to make sure the wires were connected on the brushes.  We noticed that one of the brushes was stuck.  The next day we took the pump to the Simrad repair shop to see if they could fix the problem. They called later to let us know that one of the brushes wasn't making contact and that they were able to fix it.  We tested the pump one more time on the boat before installing it on the linear drive – it worked!  After a few stretches, we reinstalled the unit in the boat.  We then did the dock side test again and it went well.  Phew!  We weren’t able to do the sea trial test that day, but will complete that to make sure everything is running smoothly.  Fingers crossed we’ve fixed the problem that was causing the error in the first place.

Hasse Inspection

Carol Hasse of Port Townsend Sails came in January to inspect the sails her loft made that we bent on in October 2011. http://www.porttownsendsails.com/about.htm  Everything looked great.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough wind to inspect the sails while sailing, so we had to check them out at the dock.